Kahne seeks to rekindle Lowe’s success

Posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 5:26 PM EDT.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500, the fifth of 10 races that will decide this season’s series champion.

Saturday night’s event will mark the halfway point of the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

With its close proximity to many of the team’s race shops, Lowe’s Motor Speedway provides a “Homecoming Week” atmosphere for the drivers and teams. And speaking of close, this year’s Chase is shaping up to be one of the sports closest finishes since the playoff format was introduced in 2004.

Currently, only 121 points separate the top six positions. Kurt Busch holds down the sixth spot while Kahne is 11th and 306 points behind the leader.

Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) slipped one spot to sixth-position after his eighth-place finish last weekend in Fontana. Busch has tallied three top-10 finishes in the first four Chase races. In 18 starts at Lowe’s, Busch has three top-five finishes and has led 238 laps. For the veteran Busch, Saturday night’s event presents an excellent opportunity to secure his first career victory at Lowes.
 
“It really is two different seasons here in our sport,” said Busch, who has led laps in all four Chase races this season. “You do what it takes to make the Chase and you might as well put those stats from the first 26 races aside. After that, it’s just those 12 guys out there slugging it out from week to week. You’ve got to be focused on those last 10 races and there is no looking back.”
 
Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) certainly knows how to get his Budweiser Dodge around the 1.5-mile oval of Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He has four consecutive top-10 finishes at Lowes and has finished outside the top eight only once in the last seven races at the track.  In 11 starts at Lowe’s, Kahne has three wins, four top-five and six top-10 finishes.
 
Why so much success at Lowe’s?
 
“One of the biggest things for me (at Lowe’s) is that you have to be able to run anywhere on the race track,” Kahne said. “Your car has to turn really good at certain areas on the track and the front-end has to be in the track. Last year in the October race, the back-end of my car was out of the track, but the front was still really positive in those areas that I wanted it to be and that really benefited us. We ran second, pretty darn close to Jeff Burton (race winner). I would say the biggest thing is having your front end really positive at certain load spots on the race track.”
 
All seven Dodge teams entered in the Bank of America 500 are assured berths into the event as they are inside the top 35 in car owner points. Dodge has 14 wins at Lowe’s. 
 
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase standings
(After 4 of 10 races in the Chase)
1. Jimmie Johnson, leader
2. Mark Martin, -12
3. Juan Montoya, -58
4. Tony Stewart, -84
5. Jeff Gordon, -105
6. Kurt Busch (Dodge), -121
7. Greg Biffle, -188
8. Carl Edwards, -192
9. Denny Hamlin, -219
10. Ryan Newman, -223
11. Kasey Kahne (Dodge), -306
12. Brian Vickers, -351
 
Other notes

• Elliott Sadler (No. 19 Stanley/Susan G. Koman Dodge Charger). For the second consecutive year, Sadler and the No. 19 Stanley Dodge are changing their look with a pink paint scheme for the NASCAR Banking 500. The pink paint scheme is in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

What you need to know
The Race: Bank of America 500
The Place: Lowe’s Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
The Date: Saturday, Oct. 17
The Time: 7:41 p.m. EDT
Distance: 334 laps/500 miles
TV: ABC, 7:00 p.m. EDT

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 5:26 PM EDT and is filed under Motorsports and tagged Dashboard. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments are currently closed.